Thanks to this free app, the underwhelming Pixel 11 Pro finally feels worthy of its $1,100 price tag

For instance, you can make it work with WhatsApp and configure the HiLight LED to flash a green light whenever you receive a WhatsApp notification. The HiLight Studio app also lets you manually configure the brightness, intensity, and saturation of the light.

Furthermore, you also have the option to import and export presets and select a color of your choice from the eight available preset colors, or you can also use the classic color slider.

Setting up the app requires technical knowledge

While the app is completely free to use, and its developer explicitly mentions that it doesn't require any root or show any sort of ads, it's worth mentioning, though, that installing it does require technical knowledge. The reason behind this is that it isn't officially available on the Play Store; you will have to download it from GitHub. Then, you will have to unlock developer settings and use Shizuku and ADB sideloading from a computer to complete the installation process of the app on your Pixel 11 Pro phone.

That's not all. The installation description clearly mentions that the app must be restarted after every reboot.

In short, the installation isn't as straightforward as a regular app, but once done, it can make the HiLight feature a lot more capable than it currently is. That said, it's worth mentioning that I, personally, haven't tried this app.

Also, its installation requires a lot of advanced permissions, so do it at your own risk. I would only suggest getting this app if you know what you're doing and have experience of using the highly advanced Shizuku app.

Everyone wants more from HiLight

HiLight is not a very groundbreaking feature, as we already had something similar in the form of notification LEDs in phones like the Galaxy S8 and Nexus 5. Google certainly had the chance to make this functionality a lot more useful by making it work with third-party applications, but for some reason it decided not to. That's the reason why many Pixel fans believe that the feature is actually half-baked.

I, personally, feel that the Pixel 11 Pro phones are a bit overpriced, especially considering the mediocre performance you get in them upon running high-end apps on them. Making the HiLight feature work with third-party applications would have justified the high pricing. Unfortunately, the Big G has decided to limit its functionality.

But it's really crazy to learn that developers were able to bypass the limitation of the feature so early. Interestingly, it also opens the possibility of the tech giant officially making HiLight support capabilities like this through a software update sometime in the future.